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Reversing Regulations

One of the most significant differences in domestic policy between the Trump Administration and the former Obama White House is the attitude towards regulations. 

According to a Forbes  study by Clyde Wayne Crews Jr. , by the end of the last year of the Obama presidency, The printed version of the Federal Register had reached 97,110 pages, by far an all-time record. That dwarfs, Crews noted, 2015’s count of 80,260 pages, and it shattered the 2010 all-time record of 81,405 by 15,705 pages.

The overwhelming number of regulations was just one issue. The former White House also established vague, undisclosed interpretations of federal regulations.

The Trump Administration moved quickly to reverse Obama’s paradigm. Almost immediately upon taking office, the new President demanded that for every new regulation introduced, 2 old ones must be cut. Agencies have been forced to comply. So far, 14 regulations have been cut for every significant new one implemented.

Additionally, the White House demanded that agencies place their guidance documents on easily searchable public websites. Bureaucracies are now required to permit citizens to give their input on these guidelines, and they will have the ability to ask agencies to withdraw guidance they believe is wrong. Agencies are also prohibited from enforcing rules that have not been made publicly known.

In 2018, the American Action Forum (AAF) noted that the Trump Administration was slashing regulations at a record pace. The study found that the approximately $16.4 billion in regulations emanating from 70 agencies were cut.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI)    reports that “In 2017, Trump’s first year, the Federal Register finished 2017 at 61,308 pages, the lowest count since 1993 and a 36 percent drop from President Barack Obama’s 95,894 pages in 2016, which had been the highest level in history.”

The latest Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom notes that “The U.S.’s economic freedom ranking has risen six places, and its overall score in the 2019 Index is the highest recorded since 2011. This improvement reflects the impact of major regulatory and tax reforms on economic growth, investment, and business confidence. In 2018, the unemployment rate fell to its lowest point since 1969.  Significant regulatory reform has resulted in the delay or withdrawal of 2,253 pending regulatory actions since January 2017.”

In its 2019 “10,000 Commandments” report, CEI outlines key facts:

  • The estimated $1.9 trillion “hidden tax” of regulation is greater than the corporate and personal income taxes combined. If the cost of federal regulations were a country, it would be the 9th largest, behind India and just ahead of Canada.
  • Each U.S. household’s estimated regulatory burden is at least $14,615 annually on average. That amounts to 20 percent of the average pre-tax household budget and exceeds every item in that budget, except housing.
  • In 2018, the Trump administration issued 3,368 rules. That’s more than the 3,281 final rules in 2017, which was the lowest number of regulations coming out of federal agencies in a single year since the National Archives began publishing rule counts in 1976.
  • The estimated regulatory cost burden is equivalent to more than 40 percent of the level of total federal spending, projected to be $4.4 trillion in 2019.
  • In 2018, Washington bureaucrats issued regulations at a rate of 11 for every one law Congress enacted. The average for this “Unconstitutionality Index” for the past decade has been 28 to one. The five agencies issuing the most rules are the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Health and Human Services, Transportation, and the Treasury.
  • In 207, President Trump’s first year, the Federal Register finished at 61,308 pages, the lowest count since 1993 and a 36 percent drop from former President Barack Obama’s 95,894 pages, which had been the highest level in history. The 2018 Federal Register rose to 68,082 pages (however Trump’s rollback of rules can add to rather than subtract from the Register).
  • In the pipeline now, 67 federal departments, agencies, and commissions have 3,534 regulatory actions at various stages of implementation(recently “Completed,” “Active,” and “Long-term” stages), according to the fall 2018 “Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions.”
  • Of the 3,534 regulations in the Agenda’s pipeline, 174 are “economically significant” rules, which the federal government describes as having annual economic effects of $100 million or more. Of those 174, 38 are deemed “deregulatory” for purposes of E.O. 13,771.
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U.S. Economy stagnates in debt and regulation

It’s already known that America’s 2016 national debt has surpassed the $19 trillion mark under President Obama, a dramatic increase from the debt accumulated over 233 years which at stood $10.6 trillion when he took office.

The hike has been startling, but even more so when one considers that nothing of significance or lasting value has been added to the U.S. with all that expenditure. Other periods of heavy spending resulted in clearly visible results.  During the 1940’s, extensive outlays produced a victory in the Second World War.  The 1950’s saw the development of the U.S. highway system. President Reagan’s arms buildup in the 1980’s ended the first Cold War.

Even in comparison with the anemic growth that has become common since Mr. Obama assumed office, the state and outlook of the economy as 2016 moves into February is worrisome. The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics release on Jobs indicates that job growth, in particular, remains disappointing.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis  notes that real gross domestic product — the value of the goods and services produced by the nation’s economy less the value of the goods and services used up in production, adjusted for price changes – barely edged up at an annual rate of 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, a reduction from the very weak third quarter increase of 2%.

CNS News reports that the huge jump in the national debt represents a liability of $70,612.91 for every U.S. household

The first evidence of an extremely expensive and utterly failed economic policy came from the $830 billion dollar “stimulus,” passed early in the Obama Administration’s reign, which tripled the yearly annual deficit.

The Wall Street Journal summarized it this way: “The federal government poured billions into the government and education sectors, where unemployment was low, but spent only about 10% on promised infrastructure, though the unemployment rate in construction was running in double digits. And some of the individual projects funded by the law were truly appalling. $783,000 was spent on a study of why young people consume malt liquor and marijuana. $92,000 went to the Army Corps of Engineers for costumes for mascots like Bobber the Water Safety Dog. $219,000 funded a study of college ‘hookups.’

“In aggregate, the spending helped drive federal outlays from less than $3 trillion in 2008 to $3.5 trillion in 2009, where federal spending has roughly remained ever since.
The legacy is a slow-growth economy: Growth over the last 18 quarters has averaged just 2.4% — pretty shoddy compared to better than 4% growth during the Reagan recovery in the 1980s and almost 4% in the 1990s recovery.

“The failure of the stimulus was a failure of the neo-Keynesian belief that economies can be jolted into action by a wave of government spending. In fact, people are smart enough to realize that every dollar poured into the economy via government spending must eventually be taken out of the productive economy in the form of taxes.”

In addition to skyrocketing debt with no substantive return, the nature of the once robust American economy seems to have been altered. The Heritage Foundation notes that “America’s Economic Freedom Has Rapidly Declined Under Obama, largely due to rapidly rising government spending, subsidies, and bailouts.”

Heritage’s annual 2016 Index of Economic Freedom reveals that “America’s economic freedom has tumbled. With losses of economic freedom in eight of the past nine years, the U.S. has tied its worst score ever, wiping out a decade of progress. The U.S. has fallen from the 6th freest economy in the world, when President Barack Obama took office, to 11th place in 2016.” In addition to the enormous new debt, the huge impact of new regulations and healthcare takeover are cited as reasons.

Heritage worries that “This is not something to take lightly. Economic freedom is the foundation of U.S. economic strength, and economic strength is the foundation of America’s high living standards, military power, and status as a world leader. The perils of losing economic freedom are not fictional. It is painfully clear that our economy has been performing far below its potential, with individuals, families, and entrepreneurs being squeezed by the proliferation of big-government bureaucracy and regulations…Self-inflicted wounds include:

  • The S. has the highest corporate tax ratein the developed world. This has driven new jobs to other, more competitive nations and has meant fewer jobs and lower wages for Americans.
  • The overall annual costof meeting regulatory requirements has increased by over $80 billion since 2009, with more than 180 new regulations in place. In terms of ease of starting a new business, analyzed by a recently published World Bank report, the U.S. is ranked shockingly low at 49th, trailing countries such as Canada, Georgia, Ireland, Lithuania, and Malaysia. No wonder the labor force participation rate has remained at near record lows after more than five years of steady decline.

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In the past, major global recessions were healed by the dynamic strength of the U.S. economy. However, eight years after the “Great Recession,” America’s failure to unleash the potential of its free market has not provided that boost.  The World Bank notes that “Global growth disappointed again in 2015, slowing to 2.4%. “

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American economic freedom declines

The United States is becoming less free economically, according to Canada’s Fraser Institute for Economic Freedom.  The information was released in the organization’s 2015 Annual Report, which measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom.

According to the recently released study,

“Throughout the period from 1970 to 2000, the United States ranked as the world’s freest OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development] nation (generally the third freest economy overall behind only Hong Kong and Singapore). The chain-linked summary rating of the United States in 2000 was 8.65. By 2005, the US rating had slipped to 8.22. The slide has continued. The 7.73 chain-linked rating of the United States in 2013 was more than 0.9 of a unit lower than the 2000 rating. While other nations have also declined since 2000, the decline in economic freedom in the United States has been more than three times greater than the average.”

The problems presented by America’s economic freedom decline are more than just temporary.

According to the report, “…a one-point decline in the… rating is associated with a reduction in the long-term growth of GDP of between 1.0 and 1.5 percentage points …This implies that, unless policies undermining economic freedom are reversed, the future annual growth of the US economy will be only about half its historic average of 3%.”

The Fraser report notes that the most significant reversals in U.S. economic freedom have been in the areas of legal system and protection of property rights, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation. The increased use of eminent domain was particularly cited. “…it is clear that the increased use of eminent domain to transfer property to powerful political interests, the ramifications of the wars on terrorism and drugs, and the violation of the property rights of bondholders in the auto-bailout case have weakened the US tradition of rule of law. These factors surely contributed to the sharp decline in the legal system area.”

While the United States’ reversal is particularly glaring, the rest of the world has not progressed as hoped. “While economic freedom has generally risen globally since 1980, there has been a modest reversal of the trend since 2000. …the average rating for the original OECD nations has fallen by 0.26 of a point since 2000.”

Fraser notes that the cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to enter markets and compete, and security of the person and privately owned property. The report used 42 “data points” to construct a summary index and to measure the degree of economic freedom in five broad areas:

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  1. legal structure and security of property rights;

3 access to sound money;

4 freedom to trade internationally; and

5 regulation of credit, labor, and business.

Hong Kong and Singapore were found to have the most open economies. New Zealand, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Jordan, Ireland, Canada, and the United Kingdom round out the top 10.  The United States came in 16th, Japan 26, Germany 29, South Korea 39, Italy 68, France 70, Mexico 93, Russia 99, China 111, India 114, and Brazil 118. The 10 lowest-rated countries are countries are: Angola, Central African Republic, Zimbabwe, Algeria, Argentina, Syria, Chad, Libya, the Republic of Congo, and, in last place, Venezuela.

Fraser’s research indicates that Economic freedom plays a large role both in the prosperity of a nation’s population and in other areas of “well-being.”

“Nations in the top quartile of economic freedom had an average per-capita GDP of $38,601 in 2013, compared to $6,986 for bottom quartile nations. In the top quartile, the average income of the poorest 10% was $9,881, compared to $1,629 in the bottom quartile in 2013. Interestingly, the average income of the poorest 10% in the most economically free nations is about 50% greater than the overall average income in the least free nations. Life expectancy is 80.1 years in the top quartile compared to 63.1 years in the bottom quartile. Political and civil liberties are considerably higher in economically free nations than in unfree nations.”

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U.S. Drops in Freedom Rankings

The United States has dropped in the ratings of economically free nations, losing a half point since last year’s survey.

According to a Wall Street Journal/Heritage Foundation survey, America lost ground due to deterioration in property rights, fiscal freedom, and business freedom. The U.S. doesn’t  even score as the top nation in North America—that rank went to Canada.

Overall, America comes in at a dismal 12th place, behind Hong Kong (although that may soon change due to Beijing’s increased involvement in political affairs), Singapore, Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand, Canada, Chile, Mauritius, Ireland, Denmark, and Estonia. According to the survey the United States has experienced a dramatic decline since 2006. The principle reasons for the drop are diminished property rights, increased corruption, and higher government spending. The authors note that America is “The only country to have recorded a loss of economic freedom each of the past seven years.  The overall U.S. score decline from 1995 to 2014 is 1.2 points, the fourth worst drop among advanced economies.”
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In terms of economic performance, the survey notes that “Substantial expansion in the size and scope of government, along with new and costly regulations in areas like finance and health care, has contributed significantly to the erosion of U.S. freedom.  The growth of government has been accompanied by increasing cronyism that has undermined the rule of law and perception of fairness.”

A particular burden that is worrisome is not just the high rates of taxation, but the increasingly vast array of regulations and the cost of compliance with them.  Since 2009, more than 130 new regulations have been imposed, imposing an additional $60 billion  expense.